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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2015 Sport 37 RUGBY MOTOGP Malta to face Belgium at Headingley MALTA and Belgium will face off in a summer international at Head- ingley Carnegie in a curtain-raiser to the round 19 First Utility Su- per League clash between English heavyweights Leeds Rhinos and Hull FC on Sunday, June 21. Leeds officials anticipate a bump- er crowd for one of their biggest home clashes of the season. Hosting the mid-season interna- tional in England means Malta's high profile players, including Wakefield's Jarrod Sammut, could be easily accessible for selection and coach Anthony Micallef says the match will be the perfect warm up ahead of the team's European Championship C commitments later in the summer. Leeds Rhinos CEO Gary Hether- ington said the club is duly excited about bringing the RLEF sanctioned international to Leeds. "We are delighted to be hosting this international fixture and wel- coming the rugby league fans of Malta and Belgium to Headingley. I'm sure the Leeds Rhinos and Hull FC fans will create a great atmos- phere and make it an occasion to remember for both teams," com- mented Hetherington. The Leeds Rhinos development is a reversal of the issues the MRL is battling in Malta where it plays a five-team national championship without a designated home ground, renting this year's venue for their summer international from the Athletics federation. Belgium's newly appointed head coach, former Junior Kiwis coach Tony Benson says the international will be a test of their progress. "We are working our way through an Elite programme to develop the athletes of Belgium Rugby League and we see this as a significant test of our progress. "Our players are looking forward to experiencing the buzz of a big ground at Headingley so I hope the fans of Leeds Rhinos and Hull FC get behind the fixture and enjoy our game as much as we will cherish the experience. I'm sure the big event at such a historical Rugby League ven- ue will bring out the best of us and be an event we'll never forget." Yves Kazadi, president of the 21- in-the-world ranked Belgian Rugby League Association, said a key fea- ture of Benson's appointment was to teach about the culture of the game. "Rugby league is about having the right strategy, structure, talent and culture. With Tony on board, we are learning more and more about that culture." Maltese captain and former Gates- head Thunder prop Chris Parker said the Maltese are looking to put things right this season after a poor 15-minute spell against Greece last June proved the difference between being crowned European C cham- pions and their second place finish. "We feel like we have a lot more to give than we showed. The gen- eral feeling is we let ourselves down against Greece. You can't give any side that much of a head start in a game and expect to win," said Parker. Malta, launching its national squad setup this year, hopes to field up to 11 domestic based players against Belgium, including Jeremy Dela who moved to England this month to link up with Birming- ham. Malta coach Anthony Micallef commented, "He's a strong boy with a big potential to learn and that will put him in a good position to be part of the squad with his move to England. We're again looking to use a large contingent of domestic players and he will hope to be one of them. "The team wanted more fixtures, and this match will be the third of five national team fixtures in the space of fewer than 18 months, an opportunity for the team to move up the international rankings if they can get the results on the board. "We're very thankful for Belgium accepting the match. As a federa- tion, we've approached bigger teams such as Italy, Scotland, Ireland and Lebanon for a match over the last three years and none has accepted, so we take our hat off to Belgium for what should be a great occasion up at Headingley." The international will be Bel- gium's first outing since their 52-10 loss against Spain in Valencia and Malta's first test since their 34-8 away defeat of the Czech Republic last July. Sunday 21 June 2014 Belgium v Malta (Curtain-raiser to Leeds Rhinos v Hull FC, Super League XX Round 19) Headingley Carnegie Stadium, Leeds, England Overseas easily defeat Kavallieri BRYAN CORLET T IN this game which didn't change anything in regards to the ranking order in the Maltese Rugby Cisk Lager Competition, Overseas ran out the winners against Kav- allieri by 32 points to 7. It was a game that proba- bly ref lected the conditions, played in a slight drizzle throughout with leaden grey skies. Trying to keep track of play was a numbers game, espe- cially since Kavallieri did not have one player wearing the same number as those listed on the team sheet. It was probably down to the fact that as they were short on playing numbers, and so players were playing out of posi- tion. The scrappy affair was partly expected, maybe also to ref lect the Carnival atmosphere this weekend. The ball was slippery, so a lot of movements went to ground through dropped passes. The first 10 minutes of play after Kavallier's Blyton(10) kicked off was played around the half way as both teams tried to adjust their game to the conditions and opposition. Kavallieri used the high ball testing the Overseas on their catching game. Then it was Briffa who kicked long into Kavallieri territory, they win the ruck and go right and Gauci (13) scores with Briffa(10) converting. Kavallieri are penalised twice for the same infringement on their 22 metre line, Briffa misses the first penalt y, but finally gets the second. Overseas' Captain Clayton Cassar(8)is yellow carded for an infringement off the ball, he is in the sin bin for 10 minutes. Just before half time Briffa goals again from a penalt y and they go into the sheds with Overseas 13 Kavallieri 0. Kavallieri have only been able to get into the Overseas 22 the one time, so they are struggling to get into the game. Overseas are back on the attack again in the 2nd half with Cassar putting some power and passion into play, taking the ball over the gain line giving his backs some space to work in, they work it left and right and finally Gauci(13) runs it in for his second try. Gauci had a good game today in his lime green boots, putting some pace on the ball when he gets it. Briffa converts and it is Overseas 20 Kavallieri 0. Kavallieri launch an attack with a high ball, Overseas drop it and Debierre (13) fol- lowing through pounces on it and scores. Blyton converts and Kavallieri are on the board Overseas 20 Kavallieri 7. Briffa restarts long and Overseas are on the attack again, keeping the pressure on Kavallieri. As a spectacle the game lacked a lot, too many mis- takes, not enough phase play to drag in the stragglers in defence, so there are too many players out in the back lines, no high balls, the grubber kick being overused and it is not effec- tive. Overseas put a couple of phases together going left and right and Mupimhidza (2) scores 10 metres from the corner f lag Briffa con- verts Overseas 27 Kavallieri 7. Down to the last 10 minutes of play Briffa kicks into the corner from a penalt y, Overseas maul the lineout ball and Cassar goes blind and scores in the corner. The con- version misses and apart from a few more Overseas sorties at the Kavallieri line, thats where the game finishes with Referee Edwin Ward blowing for full time with Overseas running out the winners 32 Kavallieri 7. Other results of the day Falcons win the Second Division competi- tion beating Gladiators 22 to 5. A Welsh touring team Llangw ynydd School defeats a Maltese Select Schools team by 45 to 12. Honda wary despite record test pace MARC Márquez's Crew Chief Santi Hernandez says that Hon- da's RC213V still needs improv- ing, despite the MotoGP World Champion setting a record-break- ing lap during the first pre-season test at Sepang in Malaysia. Márquez claimed 13 of the 18 races on his way to a second crown last year and clocked a time of 1:58.867 while sampling different variations of Honda's new bike. However, Hernandez is wary that Honda still has to make progress in certain areas compared to per- ennial rival Yamaha. "Like last year, the best point is the braking, especially on corner entry, but we still need to improve cornering and especially the exit, in order to have more grip," Her- nandez told Movistar TV. "With the rear is where we struggle more, especially on fast corners, where the Yamaha is better, as we saw last year at this circuit. But Honda is doing a good job and I think that at the next test we will have something that can help us." Hernandez also added that re- finements are required in terms of power delivery. "The configuration of this en- gine compared to last year is a lit- tle different, especially in terms of the power delivery," he said. "The engine is more aggressive, so on the corners and especially on the fast corners it means there are some grip problems when taking the corner. But we're not too wor- ried. It is working well and there is still the second test in Sepang and the test in Qatar to come, so that we can get to the first race in the best condition." 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